We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.Find out moreJump to
Content

References serve 3 primary purposes—documentation, acknowledgment, and directing or linking the reader to additional resources. Authors may cite a reference to support their own arguments ...
More

References serve 3 primary purposes—documentation, acknowledgment, and directing or linking the reader to additional resources. Authors may cite a reference to support their own arguments or lay the foundation for their theses (documentation); as a credit to the work of other authors (acknowledgment); or to direct the reader to more detail or additional resources (directing or linking). References are a critical element of a manuscript and, as such, the reference list demands close scrutiny by authors, editors, peer reviewers, manuscript editors, and proofreaders. Authors bear primary responsibility for all reference citations. Editors and peer reviewers should examine manuscript references for completeness, accuracy, and relevance. Manuscript editors and proofreaders are responsible for assessing the completeness of references, for ensuring that references are presented in proper style and format, and for checking to make sure that any reference links are accurate and functional.Less

Cheryl Iverson

For greater uniformity in “technical requirements for manuscripts submitted to their journals,” the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, meeting in 1978 in Vancouver, British Columbia, ...
More

For greater uniformity in “technical requirements for manuscripts submitted to their journals,” the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, meeting in 1978 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, developed the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Suggested formats for bibliographic style, developed for uniformity by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), are included in that document, which has been revised and updated several times. Editors of approximately 500 journals have agreed to receive manuscripts prepared in accordance with this uniform style. Although Uniform Requirements is intended to aid authors in the preparation of their manuscripts for publication, not Less

Cheryl Iverson

Reference to information that is retrievable is appropriately made in the reference list. This includes but is not limited to articles published or accepted for publication in scholarly or ...
More

Reference to information that is retrievable is appropriately made in the reference list. This includes but is not limited to articles published or accepted for publication in scholarly or mass-circulation print or electronic journals, magazines, or newspapers; books that have been published or accepted for publication; papers presented at professional meetings; abstracts; theses; CD-ROMs, films, videotapes, and audiofiles; package inserts or a manufacturer’s documentation; monographs; official reports; databases and websites; legal cases; patents; and news releases. References should be listed in numerical order at the end of the manuscript (except as specified in , References Given in Text, and , Less

Cheryl Iverson

Parenthetical citation in the text of references that meet the criteria for inclusion in a reference list should be restricted to circumstances in which reference lists would not be used, such as ...
More

Parenthetical citation in the text of references that meet the criteria for inclusion in a reference list should be restricted to circumstances in which reference lists would not be used, such as news articles or obituaries. Note that in the text (1) the author(s) may not be named, (2) the title may not be given, (3) the name of the journal is abbreviated only when enclosed in parentheses, and (4) inclusive page numbers are given. Some resources, such as Web URLs, may be listed in the text when it is the website itself that is referred to rather than content Less

Cheryl Iverson

To be acceptable, a reference to journals or books or websites must include certain minimum data. The information varies slightly for journals and books online and journals and books in print. For ...
More

To be acceptable, a reference to journals or books or websites must include certain minimum data. The information varies slightly for journals and books online and journals and books in print. For all of these forms, please consult the specific section in this chapter devoted to that form for more complete requirements. The summary below represents only a skeleton for quick reference. Enough information to identify and retrieve the material should be provided. More complete data (see , References to Print Journals, Complete Data; , References to Print Books, Complete Data; , Electronic References; and , Special Print Materials, Unpublished Less

Cheryl Iverson

References should be numbered consecutively with arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. Unnumbered references, in the form of a resource or reading list, are rarely used in ...
More

References should be numbered consecutively with arabic numerals in the order in which they are cited in the text. Unnumbered references, in the form of a resource or reading list, are rarely used in JAMA and the Archives Journals. When they are used, these references appear alphabetically, by the first author’s last name, in a list separate from the specifically cited reference list. | Less

Cheryl Iverson

Each reference should be cited in the text, tables, or figures in consecutive numerical order by means of superscript arabic numerals. It is acceptable for a reference to be cited only in a table or ...
More

Each reference should be cited in the text, tables, or figures in consecutive numerical order by means of superscript arabic numerals. It is acceptable for a reference to be cited only in a table or a figure legend and not in the text if it is in sequence with references cited in the text. For example, if Table 2 contains reference 13, which does not appear in the text, this is acceptable as long as the last reference cited (for the first time) before the first text citation of Table 2 is reference 12. Use arabic superscript numerals outside periods Less

Cheryl Iverson

Use the author’s surname followed by initials without periods. In listed references, the names of all authors should be given unless there are more than 6, in which case the names of the first 3 ...
More

Use the author’s surname followed by initials without periods. In listed references, the names of all authors should be given unless there are more than 6, in which case the names of the first 3 authors are used, followed by “et al.” Note: The NLM guidelines do not limit the number of authors listed but, for space considerations, we have elected to depart from the NLM guidelines on this point. Note spacing and punctuation. Do not use and between names. Roman numerals and abbreviations for Junior (Jr) and Senior (Sr) follow author’s initials. Note: Although NLM uses “2nd,” “3rd,” and Less

Cheryl Iverson

In titles of articles, books, parts of books, and other material, retain the spelling, abbreviations, and style for numbers used in the original. Note: Numbers that begin a title are spelled out ...
More

In titles of articles, books, parts of books, and other material, retain the spelling, abbreviations, and style for numbers used in the original. Note: Numbers that begin a title are spelled out (although exceptions are made for years; see , Manuscript Preparation, Titles and Subtitles, Numbers). | In English-language titles, capitalize only (1) the first letter of the first word, (2) proper names, and (3) abbreviations that are ordinarily capitalized (eg, DNA, EEG, VDRL). Do not enclose article and book chapter titles in quotation marks. However, if a book, book chapter, or article title contains quotation marks in the original, Less